The Inconstant Moon
by TacticianZephine
Summary: When Princess Luna falls ill, Zecora finds that something may be wrong with her mind, rather than with her body. She suspects that the part of Luna that became Nightmare Moon has not yet healed and disappeared, and thus is making her sick. At Celestia's request, Twilight Sparkle utilizes a Memory Spell to enter the night princess's past and search for answers.
1. Chapter 1

"My dearest Twilight,

"I am writing to confide in you a very deep worry; Luna has become withdrawn, irritable, and even tired. That is why night has been coming at erratic times. She is slipping in her duties, and I fear that something may be wrong with her.

"My sister has always been relatively weak when it comes to her health, which does not affect her power, please do not misunderstand... it just means that I worry over her more as a mother would than as a sister would. I am not certain what I may do for her, however... I truly hope this is simply a mood she is in and that it will pass quickly.

"I expect that my confiding something this deeply personal to you is very startling, but I feel that at the very least, I have told someone who knows Luna, and can be summoned in the event that she is needed to step in for my sister. Not that that will ever happen, Luna has managed to complete her duties, if not several minutes late or early..."

Princess Celestia gave a soft sigh as she took a pause from dictating the letter. The past several days had found her writing and rewriting this same letter, before discarding it. She hadn't had cause to be this worried about Luna in so long now, she was sure she was overreacting. Honestly, Luna was the picture of health, what need was there to alarm anyone?

She crumpled the scroll, setting down her quill and walking toward her chamber door. A walk around the castle gardens might settle her nerves, it often did.

However, a commotion from the hallway caused them to do just the opposite, and she flung open her doors as she sprinted down the hall, catching up to a small stampede of lavender-clad guards.

Luna's guards.

"What has happened?" she demanded, soaring over the group to the leader of the pack and running beside him. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Something strange was heard from Princess Luna's chamber, your Highness."

They reached the doors to Princess Luna's rooms quickly, only to find them shut, the lock firmly in place.

"Luna!" Celestia called through the doors. "Luna, are you in there?"

"I can't open the door! Something's happened to the princess!" the voice of the younger sister's personal guard yelled back. "Please... it requires magic... please, Princess Luna isn't well!"

Celestia's horn lit, and the lock slid back, the guards and elder princess charging into the room. The pegasus guard was beside the dark princess's form, which lay on the floor, sprawled rather ungracefully.

"Luna!" the elder sister cried.

"What happened?!" the head guard barked at the dark pegasus. "What did you do to the princess?!"

"Nothing, sir! She said she felt lightheaded, and asked me to fetch her a drink, but before I could get to the door, she'd collapsed..."

"Did she say anything before asking for a drink?" Celestia asked.

"Only that her headaches were getting worse... she said something about 'the voice...' about wanting it to stop... Princess Celestia, I'm so sorry-"

The light princess squared her shoulders, and took a deep breath. "... It's alright. Someone fetch the royal doctor, and put Luna in bed. I have to contact someone."


	2. Chapter 2

"Thanks for coming to Canterlot with me, guys," Twilight said, peeking up from her book as they entered the tunnel. "I don't know what's happened that was so urgent that I needed to come right away, but I know that the four of us can handle almost anything that might have come up."

"_It is always my pleasue to help, Twilight_," Zecora said with a small smile. "_Perhaps this whole thing will seem less severe in the light_."

"Zecora's right, I'm sure it's nothing us four can't handle," Applejack agreed. "The princess didn't say you needed to bring everyone."

"I just wish Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could've come, but Pinkie's got too much work to do at the bakery and Rainbow and Fluttershy had that flight camp reunion in Cloudsdale. Well, Rainbow did, Fluttershy's barricaded herself in her house."

Applejack snorted. "Besides, it's no trouble to help, right, Rarity?"

"Of course!" the unicorn trilled. "Besides, you know I never pass up a chance to visit Canterlot-I mean, a chance to help the princesses."

Before Twilight could reply to that, however, the train hissed to a halt, and the doors slid open. A pair of royal guards entered, finding the alicorn and her friends.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle," the golden-armored one said. "We've come to escort you to the palace."

The darker-coated, wearing lavender armor and a black cape that covered his back, looked incredibly anxious, but said nothing. His gold-clad companion had turned, nudging him as he started off in another direction. The mares followed him, the dark guard bringing up the rear behind Zecora.

Both guards were characteristically silent while they made the journey to the palace, even when Twilight asked repeatedly why she had been summoned. Only after they were inside the palace walls did they give any sort of response, and even then, Celestia's guard merely grunted, "A royal emergency."

They were quickly led to a part of the palace Twilight had never seen before; the part that seemed to reflect Princess Luna's duties as Princess of the Night, and thus could only be her living space. A set of ornate doors featuring a seemingly endless night sky, complete with twinkling and shooting stars, barred their way into what Twilight knew to be the Western Tower. The doors opened of their own accord, and the mares were led to the foot of a beautiful spiral staircase.

"Quickly, please," was the only thing they were told as the dark guard set off up the stairs, his gold-clad companion vanishing suddenly. As they galloped up the stairs, Applejack noticed the guard's cape flapping up to reveal strange wings that didn't seem to be real in any sense of the word. She said nothing, however as the guard led them onto a landing near the top and through a set of curtains that parted to reveal another set of double doors, featuring a nighttime landscape.

This door opened into what could only be Princess Luna's bedchamber. Her strange-looking guards lined the perimeter of it, standing still as statues. And as they approached the center of the room, Twilight could see that they were there to keep watch.

The form of the Night Princess could be seen among the dark satin of her bed, her legs and head occasionally giving a twitch to show a sign of life. Her dishevelled sister stood worriedly by her side, and looked up at the sound of the new arrivals. "Oh, thank the heavens you've come!"

"What's wrong with Princess Luna?" the youngest princess asked. "What's happened to her?"

Princess Celestia said nothing to answer either of these questions, noticing the presence of the zebra in the center of the room with Applejack and Rarity. "Oh thank goodness, you read my second letter."

"Second letter?"

"I asked that you bring Zecora with you. Our doctor can't find anything wrong with my sister, and I fear that it might not be something that he can sense as Zecora can."

"I never got-"

"_Twilight asked if I would help if needed. Almost as if she had foreseen it_," Zecora said. "_I will need time to find the ailment. And I must work without others present_."

"Of course, Zecora. We will give you the needed space." Celestia nodded to one of the stationary guards, a bat-like pony with a gnarled black horn like a unicorn's, who stepped out of the ranks. "This stallion will fetch you whatever you need. Come, everyone. We will wait in the parlor."


	3. Chapter 3

The guards had dispersed, with the exception of the seemingly-only non-bat-pony guard that had come to greet them on the train. He remained with the mares in the parlor, and as Twilight drifted around the room, looking at the tapestries, and Princess Celestia paced worriedly, settled himself beside the door. Applejack crossed the room to him, sitting beside him quietly. Noticing his thinly-veiled distress, she cleared her throat, then introduced herself. "Hi. I'm Applejack."

"I am Princess Luna's personal guard," he replied. "My name is Dienestus."

"... isn't it sorta out of uniform or whatever to wear a cape like that?"

He looked visibly ruffled at her pointing out his cape, but shook his head. "No. Because of my position, my uniform differs slightly. It's also different due to my... condition"

"Condition?"

Dienestus looked uncomfortable, but shook off the cape, letting it hit the floor around his hooves. His wings, it turned out, were prosthetic, beautiful painted feathers over a metal skeleton. A blue-jeweled amulet hung around a black cord on his neck, and glowed when he moved his wings. "My wings were destroyed in the line of duty."

"Oh my... how did that happen? If you don't mind me asking?"

"... I was never afraid of Princess Luna when she returned. In fact, I was the only EUP guard to willingly accept my assignment to her security. When she travelled to the mountains and recruited the Vesper Equus guards, I thought she would relieve me of duty. But she didn't.

"She wasn't strong enough to take flights on her own, but Princess Celestia would go flying with her, and make sure she was safe. One day, while Princess Celestia was in Ponyville on business, Princess Luna took herself out flying. I watched from the balcony, because she was doing so well, I didn't think anything of it. Then she fainted in the air. I took off faster than I ever had before, and I caught her. But alicorns aren't as light as pegusi are, so catching another flier in training wasn't the same as catching the Princess.

"My wings were crushed, but I managed to hover long enough to get us back to safety. If I had just gone limp, my wings might have been able to be saved, but the Princess might have died. Instead, I was in hospital for weeks. They couldn't save my wings, so they were amputated. I remember Princess Luna coming in to see me every day, telling me she couldn't thank me enough for saving her life. But I was just doing my job.

"Finally, one day, she came in with some papers. I thought she was discharging me, and I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to protect her anymore. But instead, she told me that because of my bravery, she was rewarding me with a way to continue in the Guard. And she showed me the sketches of these prosthetic wings. She built them, and created this amulet so that I could fly again, by enchanting it. And she promoted me to her personal guard."

Applejack wasn't sure how to respond. She'd heard conflicting things about the Moon Princess from everyone she knew who'd spoken to her; Rarity praised her as "the most helpful client she'd ever had the joy of working with," Twilight maintained a neutral "she isn't as scary as everypony thinks she is," Pinkie and Rainbow Dash didn't know her enough to say so, and Fluttershy, well, she was pretty much frightened of her.

But now here was Dienestus, who had told her matter-of-factly that even after losing his wings for the princess, she had shown him kindness. So, she settled on a hurried, "That's awful nice of her."

"'Awful nice?' She's the kindest Princess in Equestria. Even more so than her sister. She may be a little blunt, and awkward, but that's just her adjusting to life after a thousand years of exile. You'd be out of touch too."

Before Applejack could formulate a response, Zecora materialized in the room. Princess Celestia looked up quickly, trotting over to the zebra. "Well, Zecora?"

"_I have found what ails the Princess of the Night_," she confirmed. "_It seems that in her mind, not her body, lies her plight_."

"What do you mean, 'in her mind?'" Twilight asked.

"_Be patient, Twilight, you will understand soon. __Princess Luna is held captive by Nightmare Moon_."


	4. Chapter 4

Everypony was silent, staring at Zecora. Applejack and Dienestus peering over from beside the door, Rarity actually having looked up from examining the curtains beside the large picture window, and the princesses actually approached Zecora. Princess Celestia allowed a look of confusion to overtake the worry in her face.

"I don't understand, Zecora. What do you mean Luna is 'held captive by Nightmare Moon?' Twilight and her friends unleashed the Elements of Harmony upon Nightmare Moon and restored Luna to her old self. How could Nightmare Moon still exist?"

"_Nightmare Moon and your sister are not one in the same,_" Zecora started. "_However, they existed together before she gave herself a name._ _The mind is a curious thing, your Excellence. It very seldom makes any sense. When two personalities co-exist, within the mind there is always conflict. Or a battle, if you prefer, and in Luna's case, the victor was almost always her_."

"Nightmare Moon was a corrupted form of Luna, not a whole other entity inside of her mind," Celestia argued. "... wasn't she?"

"Some ponies have more than one personality," Twilight translated. "A friend of Pinkie's back in Ponyville has four. What Zecora's saying is that Luna has always had this separate self inside of her mind, and for a long time was able to keep her controlled, except for when her jealousy got the better of her."

"... when she was young, Luna sometimes acted uncharacteristically rude, and mean, even for her. She would be aggressive, and moody, and she would even break things. And she would swear that she didn't remember the things she did or said when she was in that kind of state. I always thought she was just trying to get herself out of trouble, or that maybe it was her illness making her behave that way..."

"Ponies with multiple personalities can often lose time when the alternates have taken over. It's entirely possible that Luna _didn't_ remember what she'd done," Twilight explained. "I don't know how much of it was Luna being jealous, and how much of it was Nightmare Moon's influence, but I've seen the night you banished Luna, and she didn't seem herself at all. I think the personality that called itself Nightmare Moon just got strong enough to break free."

"Alright. But can we save her? Can we bring her back?"

"_Since Nightmare Moon got out before, Luna knew of what she was capable. And so it would seem that she has tried to contain her, to keep her relationship with you, her sister, stable. As a result, she is not present in our reality, but in one of her own. By travelling through her past and searching for answers, we might be able to bring her home._"

"When you and Luna were being held captive by the vines killing the Tree of Harmony, Zecora made a Memory Potion that let me view the past. Maybe we can try that again, and I can try and see how Nightmare Moon gained power over Luna and escaped her mind to manifest as a new consciousness."

Celestia looked worried, but eventually nodded. "Alright. Alright, whatever it takes to save my sister."

"_It takes one hour to mix the brew. In the meantime, you must choose who will drink the potion; Twilight, or you._"

"I will," Twilight piped up. "I've done it before, and I can observe from a neutral standpoint because I wasn't there."

"Twilight, are you sure?"

"Yes. I want to help Luna in any way I can."

"Alright. Zecora, come with me to the castle apothecary, we'll find you the ingredients you need. Twilight Sparkle, you and your friends stand watch with Luna's guard in her bedroom. We will join you once the potion is brewed."

"Yes, Princess Celestia." Twilight glanced at her friends, who all stood up and trotted out behind her.

-  
After the potion was brewed, the older mares appeared in the room, presenting the completed formula to the youngest princess. The white potion levitating in front of her, Twilight gave the same nervous gulp she had the very first time. She didn't know where the potion would take her, and she had no idea what she would see. She took in a breath, then, with a nod to her mentor, took a large sip of it.


	5. Chapter 5

She found herself in the courtroom of the Castle of the Two Sisters, long, long before the night Nightmare Moon had destroyed it. Celestia was just walking away through a side door, and Twilight trotted after her, ducking the irritated flicking of her tail.

She led the youngest alicorn to a chamber door that bore a simple crescent moon, and she knocked insistently with her hoof. "Luna! We don't have all day, now come along!"

"Go away!"

The harshness, it seemed, was unexpected by Celestia, who stepped back. "Luna, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! Leave me alone!"

"Come out here this minute, young filly!"

"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!" A loud crash sounded from behind the door, and Celestia flung open the door, revealing the younger Royal Sister, staring into the shattered remnants of a gilded mirror, shards of glass littering the floor around her hooves.

"Luna!" Celestia ran in, glass crunching under her own hooves as she stopped beside her sister. "Luna, what have you done? What is this?!"

"I told you to go away. Didn't I tell you to go away?" Luna's voice was thick with some strange mixture of emotions brewing under thin serenity. Her eyes were unfocused, staring out of her chamber window at something that no one else saw. Celestia seemed to act without thinking, her hoof striking Luna's shoulder and causing the younger sister to shriek and jump.

She blinked, her eyes going unfocused and then refocusing, a puzzled look crossing her face. "... Ce-Celestia? Wh... what happened?"

"... You're ill again, Luna. Come, into bed with you."

"B-bu-but I need to raise the moon tonight! What time is it? What happened to my mirror...?"

"I will do it tonight. Now, bed."

As the sisters moved across the room, the scene shifted, blurring in and out of focus as the setting changed. A dinner with dignitaries from other parts of Equestria; a Crystal unicorn who looked terribly similar to Princess Cadence prominent among them. This dinner seemed to be going very, very well, before a unicorn server tripped over a crack in the floor, falling forward and drenching Luna in some kind of soup. As he babbled an apology, the dignitaries tried desperately to stifle their laughter, and the dark alicorn looked enraged.

"How dare you, peasant!" she yelled, jumping to her feet and snarling. Her mane crackled like a fire, and the unicorn cowered in fear, as did the dignitaries around her. "You dare make a fool of a Princess of Equestria?!"

"I-I'm s-so sorry, y-your Grace, I... i-it was an a-accident!"

"Luna, please calm down," Celestia said nervously, glancing around at the guests. "My sister can be a little... dramatic. She's not well-"

"Shut up! I'm through with you tossing my private business out to strangers as if the secrets are yours to share!" A jet of blue light blasted from her horn, overturning the banquet table and causing everything on it to spill and shatter, drawing gasps from the dignitaries before she turned and cantered out.

Twilight followed the in-memory version of Luna this time as she stormed down the same hallway to her room. Halfway there, however, she froze in her tracks for a minute or so, before peering around as if confused, before hearing the voices of her sister and the others in the dining room. She turned, trotting back toward them and blinking in horror at the sight of the wreckage.

"... Luna," her sister said harshly, "I think it's best you not be here right now."

"... what? Why? What happened?"

"You know what happened. You honestly expect me to believe that you don't remember doing this?! Get out of my sight until you can learn to behave yourself!"

Luna looked wounded, but turned, leaving the dining room as Celestia apologized again and again to the dignitaries. Twilight trotted after her, watching Luna take off into the Everfree Forest before the memory blurred again. The lights dimmed, the stone of the courtyard into which Luna had fled melting away.


	6. Chapter 6

Twilight blinked several times, finding herself back in the present and staring into the eyes of her mentor. Celestia looked worried, stepping closer to her student. "Well, Twilight? What did you see?"

"Nothing of any help."

_"Still more sips of potion remain,"_ Zecora chimed in from behind Celestia. _"Twilight, you must go back again."_

Twilight shuddered, looking between Zecora and the others in the room, before settling on the still, still form of Princess Luna. "... I'll go back. Just... I need a minute to... uh... g-gather my thoughts."

"... Come on, y'all," Applejack drawled softly, leading Rarity and Zecora out of the room before calling back to her friend. "Let's step out for a minute. We'll come back in when you're ready to take another sip, Twilight!"

Twilight walked to the impressive doors that seemed to open onto the balcony from which the darkest alicorn guarded the night, and the dreams of her sleeping subjects. She sat down harder than she meant to, the memory of what she had seen weighing down on her shoulders. Luna had been so hateful, so angry, and had maintained that she didn't do any of it. How could she not know how awful she'd been?

"... Twilight, what's wrong?" Celestia asked after a moment, following her student to the doors and sitting down beside her. "What did you see?"

"... why would you act that way..."

"What?"

"... I saw two memories where Luna wasn't herself. One, I don't know what you were supposed to be doing, but you'd knocked on her door and she screamed at you to go away. When you didn't, she broke her mirror. And then the next memory I saw, she went off after a server spilled soup all over her at a dinner...she was so angry, so horrible... how did you not stop her?"

Celestia looked away from Twilight, her shoulders dropping as if she, too, bore the weight of the student's knowledge. "... There was never anything I could do. I would never be able to tell when she was going to fly into a rage, and when she did, all I could do was try to calm her. Sometimes I could, and other times... well, you saw. Her temper would erupt, and someone or something would take the damage."

"... I... think I'm ready to go back now. I'll... see if I can find anything useful."

"I'll call Zecora and the others back in. Wait beside the potion."


	7. Chapter 7

It was nighttime, Twilight could see, and they were back in Luna's bedchamber, in the Castle of the Two Sisters. The destroyed mirror had been repaired, or perhaps it hadn't even been broken yet, and the moon princess could be seen pacing back and forth in front of the window, occasionally tossing her head and shaking it violently.

Her voice was muffled for a moment, changing radically in pitch and tone as she spoke, and Twilight stepped behind the wardrobe to listen in.

_"You know that I'm right, don't you?" _Twilight remembered this as the voice that would one day belong to Nightmare Moon. _"That she's out there with those sniveling foals, letting them worship the ground she walks on and kiss her hooves. She's out there taking all of the credit for the banishment of King Sombra, while it was truly you who weakened him to begin with."_

Luna's real voice spoke up then, sounding weak and frightened as her wings fanned out and back, bending as if trying to cover her own ears. "Stop it... please, stop it..."

_"Celestia will never recognize you as anything but a lesser power. She will never, never permit you the love and adoration you desire. The love and adoration that she has known all her life and denied you."_

"You're wrong! I-I won't listen to you anymore!"

_"Oh really? Now, now, Luna, dear, you don't need to be so angry at me, when it's really Celestia you're upset with. You're ever so jealous of her... as you should be! You always knew they loved her more, look how they celebrate her daylight. They hide away and shun the nighttime. They fear it. They fear __**you**__."_

"They don't! They don't fear me!" Luna cried. She let herself sit down in front of her mirror again, staring at the floor beneath her hooves, her wings folding tightly against her sides as she shook. "They don't fear me..."

_"Don't lie to yourself, stupid filly! They have never liked you, and they never shall! Don't you __**see**__, Luna?! They will never love you, so naturally, they __**fear**__ you! Show them your true power, and then will you gain power over them! Give them __**cause**__ to fear you!"_

"I won't! I don't want them to fear me... I don't ever want them to fear me... that's how King Sombra ruled the Crystal Empire, and I don't want the ponies of Equestria to suffer the way that the crystal ponies suffered..."

_"Need I remind you that it was __**because**__ Celestia intervened that Sombra was able to banish the Crystal Empire? You might have killed him if it weren't for her trying to outshine you once again!" _ Luna's entire body seized, tensing and almost convulsing as the fully-realized voice of Nightmare Moon screamed forth. _"IT'S HER FAULT THAT THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE HAS BEEN DESTROYED! IF SHE WAS SO WEAK THAT SHE COULDN'T RAISE A SWORD TO SEVER HIS HEAD FROM HIS BODY, SHE SHOULD HAVE LET YOU DO IT! YOU WILL ALWAYS BE __**NOTHING**__, COMPARED TO CELESTIA!"_

"NO!" Luna's voice cracked back to its true pitch, her head and body shaking violently as she gasped for breath. "No. That isn't true."

_"Oh, but it is! Think, Luna. Why should Celestia be forever be showered with love and praise, while you are left with nothing but sideways glances and after-thoughts? Oh, I know why. It's because you're weak."_

"I'm not weak!"

_"You are! You were born of the darkness of a wicked, wicked deed, and so you are cursed by the weakness of your cowardly bloodline. You blackened your soul further when you exacted your revenge on the stallion who committed that deed. You were born to live in shadow, and the light of your sister will always undo you. You've always been weak, that's why you created me."_

"I didn't mean to create _anyone_, especially not someone so horrible!"

There was a single, awful beat of sinister silence before Nightmare Moon's terrible laugh tumbled from Luna's throat and the silhouette of the night princess stood up slowly, drawing herself up to her full height. Her eyes glowed a dangerous, toxic green, and it was not Luna who spoke again.

_"Horrible, am I? Well, then. Perhaps instead of wasting my time convincing you to overthrow your tyrant of a sister, I'll just do it myself. After all, Equestria only needs one princess. Why shouldn't it be __**me**__?"_


	8. Chapter 8

The next thing Twilight knew, the world had darkened.

The landscape became barren, empty, and cold. She could see her breath before her eyes as she exhaled. Nightmare Moon lay in a crumpled heap several trots away, trying to push herself up onto her hooves.

When she managed to do so, her coat still darkened and her mane and tail rippling in royal clouds behind her, she stared out at some point behind Twilight, before letting an agonized screech, her breath conjuring another cloud of smoke in front of her like a dying dragon.

Twilight Sparkle turned around, a lump bursting uninvited into her throat as she realized why Nightmare Moon... or was it Luna?... was screaming.

She was staring down at the Earth.

This was the aftermath of the night when Celestia had been forced to banish her sister. This was the moon.

Hoofbeats in the dust behind her caused the youngest alicorn to turn around. Silver armor crumbling away as if it was rusting fast, the dark mare galloped past Twilight, her wings working frantically to lift her off the ground before she hit what seemed to be an invisible wall, sending her into a spiral before she hit the ground again. Twilight ran to the side of the younger Royal sister, who'd leapt up with surprising recovery time and was blinking in disbelief.

"... T-Tia..." her true voice, the voice that belonged to Princess Luna, whispered. It was strange to hear Luna's voice fall from Nightmare Moon's lips, but Twilight hardly noticed in the moments after the thought crossed her mind.

Luna's entire body began to shake, her breathing becoming more and more ragged and shallow as her eyes filled with tears. Her face twisted in a way that only barely began to betray the unbridled agony within her, and great, painful-sounding sobs tore their way from her throat as tears began to flood down her face. Her knees buckled, then gave, the night princess collapsing to the ground and burying her face in her forelegs.

Twilight felt herself drawn to tears, felt them escape her eyes, at the sight. The princess of the night, who lost control of a part of herself that she desperately wanted to escape, exiled by her own sister to protect herself, and her kingdom, reduced to a sobbing foal on the barren surface of her lunar prison.

Where, unknown to her, she would remain, alone with the monster within her own mind, for the next one thousand years.

"Why, Celestia?!" Luna screamed through the tears and into the blackness above her. "Why?!"

The sobbing only grew louder, turning from sobs to screams as the princess continued to cry, begging... no, _pleading with _a sister who wasn't there to please, please let her come home. She was sorry. It would never happen again, she would make sure of it. She would do whatever she could to destroy Nightmare Moon...

"... even if I have to die as well, Celestia, _please_!"


	9. Chapter 9

Twilight resurfaced from the memories again. Celestia looked up, concerned, as Zecora spoke to the young alicorn. "_What did you see, Twilight?_" she asked. "_And furthermore-are you alright?_"

"... I-I... I saw... I saw Nightmare Moon taking over Luna's mind. The night you had to banish her..." Twilight looked helplessly at her mentor as she responded. "... if you didn't know that she couldn't control Nightmare Moon... you would've just seen Luna having a tantrum. You didn't think you had a choice..."

"... That's not what we mean, Twi," Applejack mumbled. "... you were cryin'."

"... oh." Twilight swiped at her eyes with the back of her hoof, trembling. "... I... saw Luna just after she was banished. She wasn't Nightmare Moon anymore just after she was exiled, she was Luna, and she... I've never heard a pony scream like that. She... she said things that I don't even want to repeat, she was begging you to let her come home-"

"Enough." The youngest alicorn looked back at her mentor, who had turned her back to the rest of the room. Her shoulders were slumped, and her breathing was shallow. "... enough. Please."

"... Princess, you didn't know that it wasn't Luna in there. You couldn't have known." Twilight approached the eldest alicorn, resting an outstretched wing on her back. "She's not still angry with you, is she?"

"I don't know if she is or isn't," Celestia confessed. "After you and the others defeated her as Nightmare Moon, she seemed happy to be back, but when she returned to her full power... it's as if she didn't remember the night we fought, only being away from here, and remembered everything when her power returned."

Celestia stood up, moving toward the doors to the balcony again. "You recall, she didn't attend Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding? She came to the reception to be polite, and you recall that she left early with the excuse that she wasn't feeling well. She hasn't attended any public functions that would normally have required her presence, had we not been doing them without her for years. She appears at my side in times of crisis, but when decorum and propriety do not state that she needs to be there, she locks herself in this tower and won't even come down to see me."

"... Maybe you should make the first move."

Everyone hushed, turning to Applejack, who'd been looking at Luna's unmoving body. She looked toward the conscious princesses, her eyes wide and dark with what she was about to say. Before she could, Twilight did. "Applejack, Luna needs to learn to come out of her shell, the princess can't baby her."

"You ain't never been shut out like that, Twilight. You don't got a clue what it feels like to have a siblin' stop talkin' to ya. Somethin' big happens, an' for a little while after they seem fine, but then one day it breaks an' they start spendin' all their time off by themself an' gettin' too invested in work an' not sayin' more than three or four words to ya..." Applejack broke off, sighing heavily, as if the rest of that sentence weighed too much on her voice to speak further. "... point is. Ya can't expect Princess Luna to come to you when you're not makin' any effort to go to her. It ain't easy bein' a sister, Princess. You gotta work at it. An' it is a _lotta_ work. But what ya get for all of it makes it worth it."

"... Honest as always, Applejack. And as right as ever," the sun princess agreed, starting to force a small smile. "I suppose I've forgotten exactly how much effort it takes to maintain good relations with your siblings. Socialization has always been so effortless for me, but always so difficult for Luna. I never was able to understand that."

"That's exactly what I'm sayin', Princess. Havin' a siblin' don't always mean that your sister's gonna get you right away. Some siblin's are lucky like that, but the rest of us got to talk to each other."

Celestia was quiet for a moment, before turning back to the room. She crossed to her sister, sitting down beside her, sighing. Zecora dared to move in as well. "_Excuse me, Princess, I mean no intrusion. However, sometimes, a simple word is the solution. Speaking to your sister to let her know you are there. Letting the part of her mind that loves you know that you care._"

A sideways glance at the zebra, and Celestia drew in a breath. "... Luna... I... do not know if you can hear me, but if you can... I want you to know that I apologize. For everything. For not believing you when you told me that you thought that there was something wrong. For not even lifting a hoof to help you. For not taking the time to understand you. For all of it. I am sorry.

"I know it will never excuse what I'd done, but I always regretted sending you away. I wished so much that I could undo it and bring you home, but I didn't know how. I know you probably will never forgive what I've done, but I'm asking you to find it in your heart to accept my apologies with the knowledge that they are genuine... I love you, little Luna..."

For a moment, nothing, but then, a quiet voice spoke. "... Celestia?"

The others in the room, who'd turned away to give the princess a moment, looked back toward her just in time to see Luna open her eyes and raise her head.

"Luna! Oh, thank goodness you've come back to us!" Celestia flung her forelegs around her sister in a hug that the younger princess didn't seem to know how to respond to, her hooves moving awkwardly from their positions pinned beneath her. "I was so afraid that I'd lost you."

"... Celestia... I was merely resting..."

"You worried me. But perhaps I merely need to learn to worry less."

"Perhaps you do."


	10. Chapter 10

The Ponyville ponies followed Dienestus down the stairs, to the doors at the base of the tower, beyond which EUP guards would be waiting to escort them to the train. Zecora, Rarity, and Twilight exited the tower, but Dienestus caught Applejack for a moment.

"Miss Applejack, I want to thank you. Perhaps now, Princess Celestia will finally learn how to understand her sister, and not blame her for her own social awkwardness."

"I know how it is to lose touch with a siblin'. I was just lucky enough that I got my siblin' back, as much as I could get 'em back, anyway. It'd be a real shame if after all this time, the princesses couldn't have that too. They're immortal, ain't they? They're all each other's got."

"Not immortal, just excessively long-lived. But yes, for a while, they will always have each other."

Applejack gave the pegasus a grin, reaching up and tipping her hat. "Well, I better catch up to the others."

"It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Applejack."

"Yers too." Applejack turned, cantering off to join her friends.

Twilight looked back at her. "Hey, Applejack?"

"Yeah?"

"... is there... something you want to talk about? Something going on with you and Applebloom?"

"There was never anythin' going on with me an' Applebloom. Nah, I was talkin' about somethin' else. We fixed that scrape years ago. Just thought the princess might like to know that all siblin's have rough spots that they gotta work through, an' sometimes things ain't always what they look like."


End file.
